Game 38: Canadiens 4, Lightning 5

First game back after the Western Canadian trip and the Christmas break.  Now it's the 'traditional' Florida swing for the Canadiens during the holidays.  Joel Armia is out with a wrist injury after a Nathan Beaulieu crosscheck in Winnipeg, and Jesperi Kotkaniemi returns to third-line centre duty after a stint in concussion protocol.  Nick Suzuki bumps up to second-line right wing.

La formation projetée du match de ce soir face au Lightning. 📝

The projected lines for tonight's game against the Lightning.#GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/1QeUiwaZJj

— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) December 28, 2019

It's a big one tonight, the continuation of a big road trip, to help define if we're a contender or pretender, a buyer or seller at the trade deadline.  The Canadiens have shone against strong adversaries, and coughed it up against the weaklings.  They've had an eight-game winless streak this season, and now are 7-3-0 in the midst of a tough road stretch.  They're kind of hard to figure.

The Lightning are wearing their black uniforms.  They look like dark masses out there, amorphous blobs, it's impossible to decypher which player is which, the numbers don't pop, they're darkish against a dark background.

I'll say it again: when you install me as your NHL Commissioner/Hockey Czar, I'll immediately decree that black unis are not permissible.  I'll generously allow the Bruins to keep their ugly black and yellow jobbies, but everyone else has to choose a colour.  The Kings go back to their glorious purple and yellow.  The Penguins return to their fetching powder blues.

And no cheating either.  No black, but also no anthracite, no dark grey, no gun-metal grey, no charcoal, no almost-black-with-a-couple-gold-accents-because-we're-the-Golden-Knights-but-our-owner-really-wanted-to-call-us-the-Black-Knights-and-couldn't-obtain-the-rights-in-between-playing-games-of-"shiny"-hockey-in-his-youth.  Pick a colour scheme.  Embrace it.  You go to the bar you can wear black then.

It's a good start for the Canadiens.  The Canadiens had two goals up on the board before the Lightning got a shot on net of their own, 13 minutes in, at which point they got a sarcastic cheer from the crowd, probably split evenly between Tampa and Montréal fans.

Except the Canadiens, who cannot let us have nice things, refuse to go into the first intermission with a 2-0 lead, and let Tampa score late in the first, at 19:01, and a big deal is made of Steven Stamkos assist as it brings him to 799 points in his career, and third in Lightning history behind Martin St-Louis and Vincent Lecavalier.  

Still Jekyll and Hyde-ing us, the Canadiens let Stamkos score in the second minute of the second period to let him get to an even 800 points, and then allowed a third goal on a weird bounce off Artturi Lehkonen after Carey Price bobbled a shot.

So, as Dave Randorf almost strangles himself by exclaiming, the team that was down 17-0 in shots in the first period is now up up 3-2.  And Gary Galley incisively opines: "Tampa have found their legs."  No, really?

Sure enough, Killorn adds another to make it 4-2 at the twelve minute mark, at which point Claude Julien calls a timeout and reams out the team.  Which seems to work, as Ben Chiarot immediately cashes in a rebound from Brendan Gallagher.

Like we said, hard to identify what this team is all about.  Montréal down 4-3 at the second period break.

And the wheel keeps on turning, with Anthony Cirelli cashing in a rebound less than a minute into the third.  5-3 Tampa.  We cannot have nice things.  Especially when Carey Price is a mere mortal.

À propos of nothing, I perused my first 2020 mock draft of the year today.  I haven't spun the lottery wheel yet...

Jordan Weal scores one late on a 6-on4 powerplay, with Carey Price pulled, but that's as close as we get, 5-4 is the final score.  A scrum after the final horn does nothing to change that.